More should be done to push ethical biofuels

http://www.farmersguardian.com/home/latest-news/more-should-be-done-to-push-ethical-biofuels/38377.article

14 April 2011 | By Olivia Midgley

THE Government must do more to encourage new ways of producing biofuels which do not compete with food and do not compromise human rights, a report has said.

The report, Biofuels: ethical issues, which follows an 18-month inquiry into bioethics by the Nuffield Council, stated policies such as the European Renewable Energy Directive (ERED) were ‘particularly weak’ when it came to companies using scarce land resources to produce fuel crops rather than food.

Experts also found current policies were failing to enforce measures to protect the environment, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and avoid human rights violations.

Backfired

“Biofuels are one of the only renewable alternatives we have for transport fuels such as petrol and diesel, but current policies and targets which encourage their uptake have backfired badly,” said Prof Joyce Tait, who led the inquiry.

The report highlighted the lack of incentives policies such as the ERED included for the development of new biofuel technologies which could help avoid these problems.

Its authors also revealed new avenues of research which used algae to produce biofuels - a massive breakthrough as they do not compete for agricultural land.

And researchers have started developing technologies which enable all of the plant to be used in production, meaning less waste and higher energy outputs.

“Researchers are developing new types of biofuels which need less land, produce fewer greenhouse gases and do not compete with food, but commercial scale production is many years away,” added Prof Ottoline Leyser, one of the report authors.

“The Government should do more to encourage research into these more ethical types of biofuels.”
In addition, the Council has recommended there should be a set of overarching ethical conditions for all biofuels produced and imported into Europe, similar to the Fair Trade scheme for cocoa and coffee.

Prof Tait said: “We appreciate the difficulties in applying firm ethical principles in the real world, but existing biofuels policy is failing. This is a global problem which needs a global solution.”